Steven Spielberg's epic screen version of J.G. Ballard's bestseller about an English boy's coming of age during Japan's invasion of China in WWII was the first major Hollywood movie ever shot in the People's Republic of China. The 1987 film—adapted by Tom Stoppard and featuring an Oscar-nominated John Williams score—received a total of six Oscar nominations and won Best Picture honors from the National Board of Review. A young Christian Bale makes a remarkable screen debut as the pampered upper-class protagonist who must endure the horrors of war, starvation, and a Japanese internment camp.